Dr Mike Clayton is a Business Author, Conference Speaker, Facilitator, and Trusted Advisor

... but these describe what he does, not who he is.

Are you looking for a curious soul, committed to intellectual rigour, transparent communication, and the highest professional standards?

With Mike as your speaker, you are in safe hands, assured of honesty, entertainment and insight. You can always rely upon his work to be rigorously researched, carefully crafted and extensively rehearsed.

"I want to thank you personally for the support that you have given me and my business over the past year. There is no doubt that as a result of your coaching and consultation, we have been able to improve several aspects of our business."

Managing Director, Professional Services

"I am particularly impressed by the way in which the more experienced and senior staff have been instantly receptive to this program and ideas presented by Mike."

Managing Director, Manufacturing sector

An Intellectual Magpie:Mike loves ideas.

Writing books, speaking, giving seminars and training people all give him the perfect excuse to learn, read and develop his thinking on a wide range of topics. And he is skilled at communicating complex ideas to managers and leaders at all levels.

His primary themes are organisational wisdom, professional communication, and personal effectiveness.

Mike believes wisdom comes from connecting diverse ideas; not from specialising in just one area.

A Trusted Advisor:Mike is a coach, facilitator and mentor.

Mike spent many years as a project manager, integrating complex change in a wide variety of organisational settings. He has used his experience of leading project teams to develop his understanding of management, leadership and personal effectiveness.

Now he offers coaching and counsel to selected clients, helping them think through complex issues and communicate them to their clients and teams.

Mike takes great pride in all aspects of his professionalism.

A Powerhouse:Mike is creative, disciplined and organised.

Mike has been a successful project manager and management consultant, before changing career and becoming a successful coach and trainer, founding two training businesses. Now in his third career as a speaker and author, Mike has got more done than most, yet said NO to more things than he has said yes to.

He is an expert in getting things done, making change happen, and thriving as a result.

Mike is efficient, effective, and a powerhouse of productivity.

Learn more about Mike's work as ...

More about Mike

2015

Mike decided to take a break from writing books in 2015 and the emphasis of his work is firstly on three large and exciting client projects - each one about facilitating complex processes for the leadership of a pre-eminent business - and secondly on converting some of his most popular live seminars into video courses. You can take a look at progress at Mike's online effectiveness training site.

2014

Two very different books this year. The final element in a planned quadrilogy of project management books, The Influence Agenda covers stakeholder engagement. And then, at the end of the year, Mike's biggest book so far... Powerhouse

2013

Mike dedicates a lot of his time to client service, but also enjoys the launch of two more books: How to Speak so People Listen, based on his successful presentation skills training programme and coaching and, after a very long wait, the introduction to project management that he had long wanted to write, How to Manage a Great Project.

2012

For the first time, Mike is forced to turn down requests for appearances, as his diary quickly starts to fill, six months ahead, sometimes. With the launch of his two most important books to date: Smart to Wise and The YES/NO Book, this is an important year for Mike.

2011

With three more books published and two commissioned, Mike now needs to allocate more time to his writing. He reluctantly resigns as a director of Kent Trainers and wishes his former colleagues well. After many years commenting sporadically on BBC television's "The Apprentice", Mike starts a popular Apprentice blog.

2010

With three further books published in the autumn (after Mike's first book last year), Mike can finally call himself an author. Time for a new passport? Profession or occupation is no longer on a British passport.

2009

Management Models Pocketbook is published and Mike is hooked on the writing process. This is also the year Mike marries Felicity and his best man uses the opportunity of a wedding speech to gently pull Mike's leg about his first book.

2008

As a two-year run of articles for Training Journal comes to an end, Mike has an idea for his first book. When he looks up the publisher's address to pitch the idea, it turns out they are based in the town he and Felicity plan to move to. Freakish or fated? 2008 also sees the birth of Mike's and Felicity's daughter.

2007

Mike has been speaking to business audiences since the late 1990s, but in 2007, he started seminar tours, first with Practical Project Management and then with Practical Time Management too. He starts to build a national reputation as an energetic and entertaining speaker who packs a lot of information and insight into his keynotes and seminars.

2006

A turning-point year when Mike met five important people: his four co-directors in the business they found together, Kent Trainers, and his wife to be: Felicity. Building a new company and a new life in parallel! Over the next few years, Kent Trainers really thrives, and so does his life with Felicity.

2002 - 2005

Mike builds Thoughtscape as a business, coaching, training and supporting clients in making change happen. Mike starts to widen his focus from project management to the other business skills he learned as a full-time project manager.

2002

Mike wanted to focus on how people respond in times of change, whilst his employer wanted him to continue delivering technical project implementation. It's time for a change: Mike knows that if he wants to learn more and move in his own direction, he must leave Deloitte. A sad-happy year.

1997 - 2001

Mike is increasingly recognised as a thought-leader and able team leader within the Project and Programme Management division of Deloitte Consulting. Joining as the 13th member in 1995, it proves to be lucky for Mike, as the team thrives, and grows to over 80 by the time he leaves. His own work includes leading projects for General Motors, BAA, Vodafone, and Transport for London.

1990 - 1997

Mike leaves academic life in 1990, for the excitement of management consultancy. He quickly specialises in project management, working with increasingly bigger clients on steadily more complex projects. Mikes talent for getting things done gets him noticed. He grows the reputation for never missing a deadline.

1983 - 1989

Mike enjoys the rigour of a scientific training in two of the UK's finest academic Physics departments. He also realises that he is passionate about communicating and craves the excitement of getting things done. He leaves academia with a BSc and PhD in Physics.

Trust the Process: My Moment of Truth

Some people would think it stuffy and dull to focus on process and systems. And it could certainly appear to be at odds with my interest in the very human skills of communication, but I have seen first-hand how process can save a career.

Picture a professional struggling to make sense of her client’s complex environment, with no feel for how she could bring order to it and help her client deliver significant and important change. This was her first important client-facing role and one that could set the tone of her whole career with our firm.

My role as her manager was to help her find a way to succeed and my solution was a two-hour coffee break. Amid the detritus of empty coffee cups and Danish pastry crumbs emerged diagrams, pictures and mnemonics summing up a few simple project management consulting processes. Simple in concept perhaps; but encapsulating a lot of powerful methods and careful thinking.

I have a passion for making the complex seem simple.

A month later, and a checkpoint meeting revealed a wholly new picture. Order had emerged as the consultant was able to ask a few vital questions and start to structure the answers she found.

Step-by-step, when we choose the right process, we get the right result. But more than that, the process gave her the confidence to be herself and apply her own knowledge, skills, and insights to the problem, free of a sense of being overwhelmed by the problem.

The world of business is full of buzz words and jargon, but process has real meaning. I learned three things in my consulting career:

I enjoy helping people to learn, as much as I enjoy doing things myself,

I have a talent for clearing the fog around complex situations and ideas,

"Over the last two and a half years, Mike's involvement has had a significant impact on our approach to project management. The staff he trained are now delivering 90% of projects to time and budget (previously below 50%). Senior staff have taken their sponsor role more seriously and are having regular meetings with project staff on progress."

Anne-Marie O'HaraHead of Projects and Property Planning, National Trust for Scotland

Mike is an experienced project manager and business change consultant

Formerly a Senior Manager with 12 years at Deloitte Consulting, Mike specialised in the delivery and integration of complex change in a diverse range of private and public sector organisations. His experience includes leading roles in a £60m programme for BAA plc, two major projects with The Post Office, an extensive infrastructure project for Transport for London, and keystone projects for MoD, General Motors and Local Government. He was Director responsible for the launch of a new business for Vodafone Mannesmann. Working in and leading a wide variety of highly successful teams has given Mike valuable insights into organisational change, team-working, and leadership skills. He presents a personal point of view and real tools from 13 years of consulting and management experience. This is combined with knowledge gained from working and training with some outstanding leaders in business and personal development.

Project Management and Organisational Change ManagementWhy are these so often treated as two disciplines?

To Mike, the management of projects and change are two ends of a single spectrum. At one end are the "hard" skills of scheduling, estimating, monitoring, budgeting, and the numerous disciplines of traditional Project Management. At the other end are the "soft" skills of dealing with people - project team members, stakeholders and bystanders. These are the people on whom the success of your project - and the change it's designed to create - depends. Dealing with agenda, sensitivities, concerns and outright resistance is not really the "soft" stuff at all. Really, that's the hard stuff! Between 1996 and 2010, Mike has trained over 4,000 people in the skills of project management - all the time emphasising the importance of balancing your project management and getting the people aspect right.

Mike specialises in integrating change at the personal and organisational level.